


i'll be your west coast, honey

by panlesters



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2009 Phan, Comfort, Late Nights, M/M, it's not all 2009 phan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 09:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17363138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panlesters/pseuds/panlesters
Summary: It might have been the days where Phil saw the brighter side of Dan, but it was the up-all-night conversations that really made him fall in love.





	i'll be your west coast, honey

**Author's Note:**

> this song made me feel some things about dnp  
> title from west coast by imagine dragons

_I ain't no superman / I ain't no holy ghost / I'm just the one that keeps you up and now you love the most_

 

Dan couldn’t ever forget the feeling of surprise at how Phil still wanted to spend time with him after experiencing one of Dan’s bad nights for the first time. He hated the low feeling that encompassed him, he hated how nothing could cheer him up, and he hated how everything he said sounded like a snatch at attention. He’d wanted so badly to pretend that nothing was up but over skype that wasn’t easy and Phil had caught on pretty quickly that Dan needed a friend more than he needed sleep.

It began with the topic of how much Dan was dreading starting his university course. Law had been a quick grab of something smart-sounding to get his parents off his back, and while it had worked, it wasn’t what he wanted.

“What do you want?” Phil had asked, his voice crackly over their bad connection.

Dan had huffed out a breath. He’d been asked that question so many times over the past year and it had his chest tightening with anxiety. He looked at his hands. “I don’t know,” he mumbled.

“Not at all?”

“Nope.” Dan sighed, looking back up at Phil through his laptop screen. “Maybe I could do what you do. Make youtube videos. I know it’s not a job but… I could spend my life doing that.”

“We could do joint videos,” Phil grinned, and Dan offered a soft smile back at him. “We could even make a channel together. That would be really cool.”

“Now if only we could get them to pay us,” Dan shrugged. 

 

They’d somehow moved on to other topics and before Dan knew it, he was yawning and glancing at the time. 3:09am.

“Wow, sorry, I’ve really kept you up,” he started as concern that he’d tired out Phil to the point where he would be too annoyed to keep at their friendship started to settle in.

“What?” Phil checked the time. “Oh. It’s alright, I’m not doing anything tomorrow. It doesn’t even feel like it’s been that long.”

“Oh,” Dan whispers softly. “Maybe you should get some sleep?”

“Trying to get rid of me, Howell?” Phil smirked.

“No!” Dan began, reaching out to grab Phil’s arm as if he was right in front of him. “I just… don’t want you to feel tired tomorrow because of me.”

Phil was fumbling around clumsily with his duvet until he’d managed to find his way under it, pulling a pillow out to rest his head on and get comfy. “You’re worth it, you know. I’d rather sit up and talk to you than go to bed and miss it.”

Dan sighed, offering a sad smile to the camera. “Am I worth it though? Or am I just the person keeping you up with my law drama?”

“You’re both,” Phil shrugs. “But I like hearing about your law drama. I want to help, you know, where I can. And, don’t forget, if you didn’t have any law drama, you wouldn’t be moving to the same city as me and that just wouldn’t do.” His grin had practically reached his ears and his tongue stuck out between his teeth.

“You’re gonna regret all that cute talk once I’m actually there with you twenty-four seven,” Dan had replied quietly, even as he ducked his head to hide his blush.

 

* * *

 

 

Long nights with Phil became a regular occurrence once Dan had moved to Manchester. Whether it was a casual “hey, it’s cool if I stay here tonight, right?” after a video filming session, or a desperate “are you up? my flatmates are drunk-singing africa by toto at the top of their lungs and i can’t take it” at 2am, Dan and Phil spent more evenings together than apart. Phil would constantly insist that he wouldn’t have it any other way, and there was no reason for his newly dubbed boyfriend to be in the same city as him if he wasn’t occupying the space next to him in bed.

“So you really hate Africa by Toto, huh?” Phil asked, huffing a laugh slightly as Dan tightened his grip around Phil’s waist and threatened to shove his cold fingers under Phil’s warm hoodie.

“I do now, I’ll never be able to unhear them singing it so out of key.”

“That’s a shame,” Phil replied, “You know it’s one of my favourite songs to sing in the shower in the morning.”

“You wouldn’t.” Dan deadpanned as Phil’s signature cheeky grin made an appearance. “What happened to My Heart Will Go On? Celine Dion is perfectly good shower song material.”

“I don’t know, I’m just feeling a vibe for tomorrow’s shower.”

“I don’t think you understand the trauma that song has put me through tonight, I cannot hear someone else sing it out of key.”

“Hey!” Phil turned in Dan’s arms, giving his best offended look before shrugging again. “My singing is perfectly in key, thank you very much.”

“I still won’t let you get away with it.”

“I guess the only way to make sure I don’t sing it as loudly as possible in the morning is to shut me up in the shower yourself,” Phil laughed. Dan did shove his icy fingers under Phil’s hoodie at that. Phil shrieked and squirmed away as Dan wiggled his fingers against Phil’s side. “Okay! Okay, you win! Okay, okay, enough!” Phil managed to yell out in between laughs and cries.

“I don’t really believe you, but okay,” Dan narrowed his eyes at Phil. “I might have to supervise your shower in the morning just in case.”

 

* * *

 

 

It’s early morning in their apartment when Dan’s woken up by Phil yelling his name desperately before telling him he’d fallen over. Dan’s not really sure how this bizarre turn of events led to him watching his boyfriend carefully as he’d tiredly, begrudgingly eaten the toast and jam he’d five minutes ago been desperate for.

“You know, you can go back to bed if you want,” Phil tells him in between bites. “I’ll be alright now my blood sugar’s going to pick up. I’ll be there soon.”

Dan offers him a sleepy smile and a shake of the head. “Nope. Gotta make sure you don’t fall down the stairs in your condition. Besides,” he takes a slice of toast from Phil’s plate and takes a bite from it, much to the other’s disdain, “It’s about time I repaid you for all those long nights when you stayed up for me.”

“You know it was always a pleasure, Dan.”

“No it wasn’t.” Dan sighs, licking the jam off his thumb and restraining himself from taking another bite, lest he get a disapproving look from Phil. “Sometimes it sucked. Did I ever thank you for them?”

“Of course you did,” Phil frowns. “You never needed to, you know.”

“You’ve missed out on a lot of sleep over the last ten years because of me,” Dan points out.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, you know,” Phil replies, reaching across to skim his fingertips across Dan’s knuckles. “I wouldn’t know you half as well if it wasn’t for all those long nights.”

“I never wanted you to know the bad side of me, when we first became friends.”

“I want to know all sides of you. You used to put on this show for people, back in the day,” he nudges Dan’s foot with his own and offers a smile, “And I fell in love with that pretty quickly. But I wanted to fall in love with the real you, and those late nights did it.”

A blush covers Dan’s cheeks and he ducks his head, not unlike a late night all those years ago, as he smiles and threads his fingers through Phil’s.

“They did it for me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed, comments are appreciated! come scream at me @ panlesters on tumblr


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